NEH Seminar: American Material Culture: Nineteenth-Century New York

American Material Culture: Nineteenth-Century New York
An NEH Summer Institute for College and University TeachersAt the Bard Graduate Center, New York CityJuly 5-29, 2011

Objects matter. Material culture scholars use artifactual evidence such as consumer goods, architecture, clothing, landscape, decorative arts, and many other types of material.

The Bard Graduate Center will host a four-week NEH Summer Institute on American Material Culture. The institute will focus on the material culture of nineteenth century and use New York as its case study because of its role as a national center for fashioning cultural commodities and promoting consumer tastes. We will study significant texts in the scholarship of material culture together as well as in tandem with visiting some of the wonderful collections in and around New York City for our hands-on work with artifacts. The city will be our laboratory to explore some of the important issues of broad impact that go well beyond New York.

We welcome applications from faculty and others with some experience doing object-based work, as well as those who have never taught or studied material culture. Application materials and other information is available here.